November 18, 2005

In Phase A, various important blogosphere blogs are coerced into a mutual non-aggression pact under the auspices of the OSM directorate. This is very similar to NATO, but French people are excluded. In Phase number B, there is large alcohol party in New York, which is an important center for media business discussions. In Phase 3, the system creates values, which are translated into very large checks for everybody. In Phase number D, I drive my new yacht, the “Ha Ha Ha,” to a tax-free Caribbean island.

He's in the alliance, so you've got to give him credit for violating the first rule of OSM. And my name comes up, in a sentence that -- outrageously -- contains the name of a bodily fluid.

UPDATE: What's going on at the OSM website right now? They've had a picture of some chickens at the top of the page since yesterday. You know how whenever there's a story about avian flu, there's got to be a picture of some chickens or parrots or something, because otherwise, people might be wondering what the word "avian" means? Fortunately, OSM saves us from worrying about what the word "flu" means. They write out "influenza." They are professionalizing blogging, so no slang. Turgid writing is the rule.

Sorry, Charlie, I don't have to follow the first rule. I stayed out of the club and preserved my free speech. Kind of a blogger thing, you know. Glad you're staying right there, though, Charlie, defending the big guys. I'm sure you'll reap wild benefits for you devotion to their interests.

Oh, I do get a kick out of Iowahawk (even though he now lives in Chicago, apparently). And it's handy to be able to point to him as proof that Iowans DO have a sense of humor (which some of my back East friends appear to question, Lord knows why)!.

Paul: Yeah. I was trying not to talk about them. But, doing that, just saying a couple words in recognition of a very flashy media event, I got accused of obsessing over them. Might as well go for it then, right? Actually, I find them too boring and sad to spend time on. To me, the site looks pretty much like a blog. A blog with only one post, that reports one news story without any interesting commentary, and then links to a few bloggers without giving any reason to click on the links. And, of course, I know that they are only linking to their own insiders. So it's basically way worse that a pretty good blog. It has some newsfeeds, but I have much better news sources.

Ann,So you've written, what?, 10 posts about PajamasMedia/OSM in the life of your blog and you're called "obsessive"?

I hardly think that anyone who likes and reads Little Green Footballs, as I suspect is a prerequisite to being an over-the-top OSM defender, has any room to call anyone's blog obsessive. Not that I am necessarily calling Mr Johnson's obsessions unhealthy or invalid, I'm just saying that it's a criticism that has been lobbed against LGF (and plently of other sites) and is entirely unconvincing.

I rather think that Ann, like me, is someone who, when told to stop doing something or stop talking about something, chooses to do quite the opposite. It's a contrarian spirit that I think is very good for blogging, and it's sad that this OSM thing has turned a lot of bloggers whose work has benefitted from the contrarian spirit (like Johnson) suddenly turned into people who want to quash it.

(This is my supposition based on reading your blog and listening to your podcast, if I'm off-base, don't hold it against me, Ann!)

Anyway, I happen to think blogging is about observing the details of things as they emerge in real time. Sit back and wait and then write something comprehensive and reflective? That's MSM-style!

Palladian: Well put. I appreciate it.

Compare my blogging on OSM to my blogging on Huffington Post. It's pretty similar. Standard Althouse fare. I observe. Let the chips fall where they may. I suck up to no one. If I didn't talk about it, by the way, I'd be accused of being an Instapundit minion, as I have been in the past.

Yes, I keep thinking about HuffPo through all this, how there was this anticipation on the right side of the blogosphere to trash it as soon as it went live (which they did, in my view rightly). Was this called obsession? Did people feel they should give HuffPo time to "mature" and get better before they vented spleen? No.

As I said, I find HuffPo just laughable and mostly stupid, quite deserving of the mockery it received. But, if I'm honest, I can't allow OSM to get away with things that I would rightly criticize if they came from lefties. In fact, because I (used to?) like so many of the bloggers at the helm of OSM and many times agreed with their politics and missions, I feel I should hold them to even higher standards, and should feel more embarassed and more upset when they make as many missteps as they have in this venture. They're making the center/right blogosphere look laughable, defensive, and incompetent. I certainly have a sliver of hope that things will improve, and will certainly speak positively about OSM if this happens, but as of now it's not looking so good.

Instead of pictures of chickens, they should use IowaHawk's picture whenever they write about The Avian Influenza. Nobody except IowaHawk readers would know what the hell was going on, but the rest of us might get a laugh out of it.

Perhaps they should dump the current idea (Super Blog on Thorazine), and try to turn The Media Formerly Known as Pajamas into a Dadaist news service. The Onion and ScrappleFace lack the requisite randomness.

Keep at OSM. I've no reason to look at it for now, and that's not just because I don't use a lot of RSS, and tend to visit favorite sites (many of which aren't OSMers) off memory. It's because OSM looks, acts, and feels boring.At least Huffington gives me some nutjobs to shake my head at.

I think we're all willing to give OSM a chance -- after all, really insulting OSM would be ignoring it, not mocking it -- but they need to get things a-rollin'. And change the name. It's more corportate-sounding than MSM, and the MSM didn't actually choose that as their name.

BTW, ChicagoBoyz had a good discussion on why they passed on OSM, and they, too, get that "Instapundit minion" garbage.

I think you're starting to obsess about those guys. Take some time off, smell the roses, or whatever...

Isn't Ann's real obsession all about the body fluids???

And my all time favorite written verse containing the word influenza???

That's Easy! "Canary in a Coalmine" by the Police (from Zenyatta Mondatta):

"First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfectYour sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defectYou live you life like a canary in a coalmineYou get so dizzy even walking in a straight line

You say you want to spend the winter in FirenzaYou're so afraid to catch a dose of influenzaYou live your life like a canary in a coalmineYou get so dizzy even walking in a straight line

Canary in a coalmine"

For some reason I always think of your classic alarmist liberal when I hear this song.

PS. Woops. Ann beat me to the Police lyric whilst I was putting this together. Have to learn to type faster.

The sad thing is that OSM is supposed to be the shining example of media credibility. I wonder how they would explain this then.

About Our NameThere are other Open Sources. A gentleman named Christopher Lydon has an excellent web site called Open Source. His URL is www.radioopensource.com, and he graciously agreed to give us opensourcemedia.net.http://www.osm.org/site/about/sitewidemap

And from Christopher Lydon’s site:

Our corporate name is “Open Source Media, Inc.” “Open Source” is the name of our website and our radio show. We didn’t give up opensourcemedia.net; we stopped using it as an active URL in mid-May.http://www.radioopensource.org/

Someone is not telling us the full truth. Can a news company which uses mostly unproven sources capture the trust of the masses with such a questionable start?

Suppose all OSM turns out to be is a clone of BlagAds but with a board of directors who are bloggers themselves? Does this make them more likely to adapt to evolving trends in a faster way? Does it make them more likely to look out for their Blogger's interests and negotiate more generously? I think a case can be made. Who is telling ProfA to shut up? I keep hearing critiques of her critiques - and some are over the top but most aren't telling her to hush up.

This is obviously getting kind of personal for folks. OSM really does need to get out in front. Unfortunately - it seems to me that one of the side effects of a physical launch party is that everyone who would normally be championing OSM was flying around or not on the web as much during the launch. This is where ProfA would make some snarky comment that having an actual physical launch party is so MSM - and then someone would make some crude remaark that she is reatarded because she didn't realize that Protien Wisdom was virtually attending and she then cracked on OSM for that - and then this would all be hashed out by the rest of us - AND I AM STILL HALF CONVINCED THIS IS A FAKE FIGHT FOR PUBLICITY REASONS.

Issue a denial ProfA - use clear non Plamegate language in the denial that this isn't a set up - otherwise we will have Tom Maguire parsing this whole spat. How is that for inside baseball references?

Sorry, Charlie, I don't have to follow the first rule. I stayed out of the club and preserved my free speech. Kind of a blogger thing, you know. Glad you're staying right there, though, Charlie, defending the big guys. I'm sure you'll reap wild benefits for you devotion to their interests.

No, actually, Ann, I'm one of those people who talked to Roger about the project --- wrote some technical analysis, sent them a resumé --- and didn't end up involved. I'm just not losing my sanity over it.

And, for that matter, I defy you to point out anywhere I've defended OSM in any comment. Actually, I'm fairly agnostic about it. I don't find the design objectionable; I've dealt with more startups than a VC and wonder, first, if they're undercapitalized, and second wonder if they're not going to have to find a CEO who is a business guy rather than a creative --- but both are common startup problems; and third, think their judgement has to be questioned because they didn't hire me. But then I've not actually commented about OSM before.

I'm pointing out that you've become irrational and increasingly abusive in your comments about it, and wonder why? I mean, really now --- the first two things you've linked via OSM have been Goldstein making fun of the principles, and Iowahawk making fun of the business model, and you're claiming the First Rule of OSM is don't criticize OSM?

Ann, I read your blog 3-4 times a day, or more if I'm involved in a thread. This isn't like you. You're generally far better than this. This is nuts.

Charlie - exactly - it is out of character both the initial crudity and obsessive nature. It is a PUBLICITY STUNT. Wake up people. How do we know ProfA isn't involved in OSM? Roger L. Simon writes mysteries. ProfA negotiates academic politics. I see the smoke filled room. Charles Johnson riding a stationary bicycle. Glenn reynolds says "Heh" and off they go to cross promote.

palladin - you are such a rube. I didn't say this stunt was to benefit OSM - it is to benefit Huffington Post. Carl Rove is a red herring. Either you fell for that or something even darker. Who are you really working for? Also - is there some other way to spell PUBLICITY STUNT?

Aaron: Good conspiracy theory! And the fact that I got an Instapundit link today ought to make you really suspicious. (And ought to make those who have been going to all the trouble to shush me to protect the big guys just a tad jealous.)

ProfA - yes - pretend to laugh along with the joke. I notice you issued a non-denial denial. Use the old "it is too obvious to be true" defense. I heard OSM just signed this journalist from the BBC, Borat, to head up the Kazakstan office. Prof A and the Kazakstani government are both shills for OSM - pretending anger. Or is it the Huffington Post. ... I'll get back to you...

I knew you were kidding, Dennis. Charlie's got a tin ear. He pictures me foaming at the mouth when I'm just vaguely bemused by the whole thing. I'm holding back from writing things I would normally observe because I feel a little sorry for them. But then, Roger L. Simon did use the cell phone number I disclosed in the originl application and called me to try to bully me into accepting their vision and when I tried to talk about what I thought blogging was about, he just hung up on me. So I don't feel all that merciful. I'll observe what I observe and try to keep it short and funny ... and fluid-filled.

Ann wrote:"But then, Roger L. Simon did use the cell phone number I disclosed in the original application and called me to try to bully me into accepting their vision and when I tried to talk about what I thought blogging was about, he just hung up on me."

Ah, but how can be sure it was you that answered the phone. Maybe you left the phone here while you traveled to Czechoslovakia to prepare you fiendish plot.